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United States Patent | 5,556,603 |
Succi ,   et al. | September 17, 1996 |
An apparatus is provided which is capable of removing impurities from an impurity-containing hydrogen gas without generating methane. A bed of particulate nickel in an amount of at least 5% by weight as elemental nickel at a temperature of from 0.degree. C. to 50.degree. C. removes all impurities except nitrogen. Then a bed of getter material, a zirconium, vanadium and iron alloy at a temperature of from 200.degree. C. to 800.degree. C. removes the nitrogen impurity thus producing purified hydrogen with an impurity content of less than 20 ppb.
Inventors: | Succi; Marco (Milan, IT); Lorimer; D'Arcy (San Luis Obispo, CA) |
Assignee: | SAES Getters S.p.A. (IT) |
Appl. No.: | 471638 |
Filed: | June 6, 1995 |
Current U.S. Class: | 422/213; 95/140; 96/121; 96/126; 423/220; 423/235; 423/247; 423/248; 423/648.1; 423/654 |
Intern'l Class: | B01J 019/00; B01D 053/02; C01B 021/00; C01B 003/02 |
Field of Search: | 422/211,213,216,189,190 423/235,220,246,247,248,648.1,654 95/115,116,118,119,130,139,140,148 96/121,126,130 |
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George et al., "Removal of simple hydrocarbons from a rare gas by a 70% Zr-25% V-5% Fe getter," Gas Separation & Purification, vol. 3, Jun. 1989; pp. 50-55. Albrecht et al "Application of SAES and HWT gas purifiers for the removal of impurities from helium-hydrogen gas mixtures," Journal of the less Common Metals ; 172-174, 1991; pp. 1157-1167. Heimbach et al., "Removal of Nitrogen and Methane from Hydrogen by Metal Getters"; EURATOM pp. 421-426. "13th Symposium of Fusion Technology " Sep. 1984, VARESE cited in the application see p. 421--p. 426. |
TABLE 1 __________________________________________________________________________ REMOVAL OF FORMATION CARBON OF EXAMPLE MATERIAL FORM MONOXIDE METHANE __________________________________________________________________________ 1 70% Zr--24.6% V--5.4% Fe Pill 100% 25% 3 mm .times. 4 mm 2 Zr.sub.2 Fe Pill 100% 35-40% 3 mm .times. 4 mm 3 84% Zr--16% Al Powder 100% 50% <200 .mu.m 4 ZrMnFe Pill 100% 2-7% 6 mm .times. 4 mm 5 Zr.sub.0.2 Ti.sub.0.8 --Mn.sub.0.5 Fe.sub.1.5 Powder 100% 1-2% <200 .mu.m 6 BaCu Granules 0% 0% <1.4 mm 7 Engelhard Pill 100% 0% Ni0104T 3 mm .times. 4 mm __________________________________________________________________________